Lunch stop on the Dan River (click for larger image)
The Dan River Basin Association first Saturday outing from Anglers Park in Danville, VA to Milton, NC on Saturday was a great experience. The weather was perfect (perhaps a bit warm) but the runoff from recent rains left the water high and cloudy, hiding the historic batteaux navigational structures. The faster-than-usual current made for a relatively quick 10.6 mile paddle through this largely undeveloped section.
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Aaron,
It was a good paddle with the water high enough for a quick easy run. I really liked your canoe. You should post pictures of it here. I thought you may have difficulity with speed in such a short canoe but the light weight (22 lbs) must have offset the length.
You were talking about a diffefrent hull shape. If you want to try a short boat with a flat bottom and a wider waterline, I have one you can try. It is ony about 8 ft long.
Doug,
Thank you for the compliments! I believe the canoe’s low wetted surface area and rounded hull allows it to be paddled at a respectable speed with less effort than boats of similar dimensions, unfortunately at the expense of stability. The revised hull shape I have been working on should have better stability without increasing paddling effort very much (at least that is what my CAD software indicates). I’d love to try out a shorter boat; perhaps you can test drive my canoe as well?